In the past week I have observed many future '98s and '99s getting their first glimpse of Dartmouth. They probably get a peek at the character of the College. Maybe they hear a story about Winter Carnival and Green Key, or about when and where it is "cool" to wear the '98 jersey.
There is also a good chance they hear, "Dartmouth is a place where people work hard and play hard." It would be great if in the near future, a tour guide could be heard saying, "Dartmouth is a place to work hard, play hard and think hard."
As Dartmouth catches up with the 20th century, this question is debated in various forms. Usually any changes are seen as a subtraction.
Frequently it is suggested that College President James Freedman and the Board of Trustees are trying to take something away from Dartmouth or attempting to remove part of its history.
These suggestions have been made in regard to everything from coeducation to the administration's stance on the Greek system. One might expect this sort of response from Archie Bunker, longing for the days when "girls were girls and men were men." But a community like Dartmouth should have no trouble understanding that change can mean an addition to the College, rather than a subtraction.
If the College can somehow evolve so that the social scene is not based on an antagonism between the sexes, that would be an addition. It would be a plus if we can move ahead so that the most important part of a class is not the grade and how it affects one's chances of getting into Yale Law School, but rather the learning and the knowledge.
Instead we are hypocritical as a community. Dartmouth thinks of itself as a "college." Anyone who calls us a "university" gets severely reprimanded. We claim to be getting a liberal arts education and shun such majors as business, education or journalism that would be more proper at a vocational school.
And yet many of us use Dart-mouth as simply a step in a vocational ladder. We are here to get into law, medical or business school. We work to get where we want and we play to blow off steam.
Clearly there is room for addition. A student at a liberal arts college should be looking at more than the bottom line. If we are going to put any meaning at all in the term "liberal arts" then we must be asking ourselves some deeper questions.
In a community where the members are probing these deeper problems, discussion naturally follows. A more intellectual campus is not a means but rather an end. It is the result of the actions of individuals.
However, it is not mutually exclusive with having a good time. It does not even exclude some of the more irrational ways of having fun. Thinking hard leaves one with plenty of steam to blow off. Dartmouth can remain a place where students feel comfortable letting loose. This is one of its strengths and should be preserved.
I look forward to a time when I hear a member of the Class of 2002 leading a tour and she tells the group, "They are right when they say Dartmouth is a place to work, think and play."
